Lead story, The New York Times, July 20, 1998: Clinton Plans to Assign Codes, as Law Requires, to Create Giant Medical Database As legislation that would protect patient privacy languishes in Congress, the Clinton Administration is quietly laying plans to assign every American a "unique health identifier," a computer code that could be used to create a national database that would track every citizen's medical history from cradle to grave. The electronic code was mandated by a 1996 law and would be the first comprehensive national identification system since the Social Security number was introduced in 1935. Although the idea has attracted almost no public attention, it is so contentious that Federal health officials who were supposed to propose a plan for the identifier by February, have made little headway and are instead holding hearings beginning on Monday to solicit public comment. Proponents, including insurance companies and public health researchers, say the benefits would be vast. Doctors and hospitals would be able to monitor the health of patients as they switch from one insurance plan to the next. Patients would not have to wade through a cumbersome bureaucracy to obtain old records. Billing would be streamlined, saving money. A national disease database could be created, offering unlimited opportunities for scientific study. But opponents, including privacy advocates and some doctors' groups, say the code smacks of Big Brother. They warn that sensitive health information might be linked to financial data or criminal records and that already tenuous privacy protections would be further weakened as existing managed care databases, for example, are linked. They say that trust in doctors, already eroded by managed care, would deteriorate further, with patients growing reluctant to share intimate details. And in a world where computer hackers can penetrate the Pentagon's computer system, they ask, will anyone's medical records be safe? Full story: http://www.nytimes.com Mirror: http://jya.com/privacy-hit.htm ---------- There's also a short report on House Commerce Committee passage of the WIPO copyright act (which limits encryption testing) by setting temporary provisions for "fair use" for education with bi-annual review by the Commerce Department to extend or let lapse: Mirror: http://jya.com/wipo-hit.htm